13th Annual Northeast Texas
Cotton Conference Honors
Culture, Saturday in Greenville

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

In what has now become a spring tradition, people from all across Northeast Texas gathered on Saturday, at the Audie Murphy-American Cotton Museum, to honor the cotton industry and its economic and cultural past in the region. The 13th Annual Conference was  begun with a series of papers presented on the many aspects of the historic industry.

 

Paul Sturdevant, of Paris Junior College, presents his presentation on the
Farmers' Improvement Society School, located near Ladonia, in Fannin County.

 

 

In the first panel, Paul E. Sturdevant, of Paris Junior College, presented his paper and research on the FIS School located near Ladonia, in Fannin County. The school for African American students was in the fashion of the Tuskegee Institute and strove to produce leaders in the African American community and prepare them for higher education. Robert L. Smith was the founder and main force behind the school that began in 1908. The institution for higher learning peaked at over 300 students in 1911, and strove to prepare students for a richer life. Smith died on July 10, 1942 and declining enrollment closed the school in 1947, but not before it produced a number of leaders in the African American Community. Title of Sturdevant's presentation was "The Farmer's Improvement Society School: A Tuskegee for Texas?"

 

Hopkins County native, Dr. Kyle Wilkison, presents his segment on the socialist movement in Northeast
Texas, during the early days of the 20th Century.

 

Second speaker was Hopkins County native and Collin County College Professor, Kyle Wilkison, who presented a segment of his newly published book, "Yeoman, Sharecroppers, and Socialists...Plain Folk Protest in Texas, 1870-1914." Wilkison told of the socialist influence in rural Northeast Texas, especially in neighboring Hunt County, and showed how they poor embraced the principals of the party in the 1910 and 1912 elections. He showed the correlation of the socialist movement with rural farmers and rural religious leaders, calling the movement "Bible Socialism."  His presentation was entitled: "Southern, Christian and Socialist: Rural America's Forgotten Radical Heritage."

 

 

Susan Lanning, of the Audie Murphy-American Cotton Museum presents her program on the
locally operated museum, that preserves artifacts an history of the cotton culture and Audie Murphy,
Northeast Texas' War Hero and moviemaking star.

 

The second segment of the program was entitled "Visions of the Past: The Audie Murphy Cotton Museum. First speaker in this segment was Susan Lanning, of the Audie Murphy American Cotton Museum. Lanning presented a number of facts and artifacts that the local museum has on exhibit, pertaining to the vital cotton culture of the early 20th century and the Hunt County Hero, Audie Murphy, who was a product of the local cotton culture.

Following lunch, Dr. James H. Conrad, of Texas A&M University-Commerce, presented a the keynote address, entitled: "Surviving Cotton." Conrad took the audience on a post cotton culture tour of Northeast Texas and showed how the region survived the many conflicts that the culture presented for the area, and demonstrated how the region has moved forward, following the exodus of many cotton farmers, into a diversified agricultural economy.

 

WWII Hero and movie legend, Audie Murphy, a product of the local
cotton culture, was remembered at Saturday's conference.

 

Final speaker of the conference was Debra A Reid, of Eastern Illinois University, who presented her topic, "Dairy Farms, Market Gardens and Watermelon Patches: African American Farming in Texas Cotton County. Reid presented an aspect of the African American life in the cotton culture and showed how the community survived the peonage of the times, as sharecroppers and tennant farmers, holding closely to religious values and managing to cling to life on the fringes of a white supremacy society.

"This is another great conference on which we can build on the history that has formed Northeast Texas," expressed Wilkison, who served as one of the organizers of this year's conference. "Each year we seem to have new and valued speakers who examine the culture of Northeast Texas and offer new and different ideas on the many historical facts that shaped our local history!"

Next year's 14th annual conference is planned for the same location and will be held on the third Saturday of April.

 

Those attending Saturday's conference were encouraged to ask questions and participate in the program with
their own bits of local history and lore.

 

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